During these frightening times, when the United States is dealing with a sweeping, insidious pandemic, there is concern about how we will proceed in a presidential election year. It’s been suggested that unless there is a drastic turnaround in the status of the COVID-19 virus outbreak, mail-in voting would be needed to minimize the spread of the disease at the polls.

I was saddened to learn that President Trump is leading Republicans in opposing mail-in voting, saying it would encourage fraud. He added that it would also make it so easy to vote that his party couldn’t win. At least he’s not hiding his real motivation: to cut back on the number of Americans who will vote. Opposing a mail-in election is one more tool in Republicans’ attempts at voter suppression.

Mail-in voting in elections in the form of absentee ballots has been routinely offered for a long time, and research shows that it has never led to widespread fraud. Let’s make Americans safer by letting them vote by mail in the remaining primaries and the upcoming general presidential election.

Linda Snow McLoon

Portland

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